Highly Cinematic Time-Lapse HDRI Sky Domes by Hyperfocal Design.

ADELAIDE, Australia, May 27, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Hyperfocal Design has released their first five time-lapse high-dynamic-range (HDRI) sky domes which are on sale from 26 May 2014 at hyperfocaldesign.com.

Jay Weston, owner of Hyperfocal design says, "Our time-lapse skies can take otherwise completely static computer graphics (CG) shots and give them life; transforming the lighting from sunrise to sunset, or an afternoon to night."

Time-lapse HDRI sky domes are footage of the sky shot in high dynamic range image (HDRI) format, photographed using a fisheye lens (pointed straight up) to capture the entire sky hemisphere. Photographed at a rate of one frame every 8-60 seconds, this causes the appearance of time to rapidly advance, along with high speed movement of clouds and sun across the sky. HDRI skies can be used in computer graphics as a background, and also to light the scene, in a process called image based lighting or IBL.

View them for yourself and check out the trailer that showcases some animated CG scenes featuring the skies. Hyperfocal has made free samples available for artists everywhere to try for themselves, not just a few frames but a staggering 863 HDRIs that run from afternoon to moon-lit night.

These are the first commercially available time-lapse HDRI sky domes, and some of the first created since Paul Debevec's original "Direct HDR Capture of the Sun and Sky" in 2004.

Jay Weston, says, "I've always wanted to recreate Paul Debevec's time-lapse HDRI skies, but the technology and resolution hasn't been there until now, with cameras like the D800. I pretty much jumped right into shooting as soon as that camera came out and everything 'lined up'".

A custom, deep cycle battery was jury rigged together to power the Nikon D800 used to shoot the time-lapses over the course of 15 hours for the day-length sky footage, and a Promote Control intervalometer was used to control the camera. The assembled HDRI format sky domes can then be used in CGI to light virtual scenes as demonstrated in the trailer.

Hyperfocal's time-lapse HDRI sky domes are highly versatile, with no back or mid ground elements of any kind. The sky dome is able to be rotated 360 degrees to control sun/light direction, and virtual cameras can point in any direction and use any exposure value or shutter speed. Choose from hyperspeed, full day length time-lapse skies, or slower more relaxing afternoons, sunsets and even nights.

Each and every frame in these time-lapses was shot to capture the full dynamic range of the sky, making them perfect for use in 1-step image based lighting solutions. No gamma adjustments are necessary, nor is adding your own virtual sun.

Time-Lapse skies are perfectly suited to epic, dramatic and highly cinematic animations, film and CG animation. Each sky contains up to 1200 individual HDR frames at 9500x4750 pixels, with some able to be time-stretched out to any number of frames.